Good morning. The average age of primetime TV viewers is higher than ever at nearly 65 years old, according to a new Nielsen report. For the once youth-centric MTV? It’s 51 years old. Seems MTV’s ’80s catchphrase “I want my MTV” really stuck with one demo.

— Hannah Doyle & Nate Graber-Lipperman

Inside YouTube Creator Danny Gevirtz’s Film Screening

Filmmaker and YouTube creator Danny Gevirtz held an official release screening for his movie, I Think I’m Sick, at Landmark’s Nuart Theater in LA last week. Here’s what we saw →

Backstory: Gevirtz started making the semi-autobiographical mental health drama in partnership with creators Matti Haapoja and Gian Carlo Stigliano in 2021, sharing the behind the scenes footage on his YouTube channel throughout production. 

The group funded the $300,000 project through YouTube AdSense, Kickstarter, and peer funding. “Even if we get 1% conversion on streaming platforms and rentals it’ll be monetizable,” Gevirtz’s manager and producer Tyler Wells said at the screening.

I Think I’m Sick won eight awards during last year’s film festival circuit, including Best International Feature at Manchester International Film Festival and Best Screenplay at NY Film Week.

The vibe at the screening? A 200-person crowd of longtime fans and aspiring filmmakers who have followed Gevirtz’s journey on YouTube.

• One attendee, photographer Fernando Ventura, told us he appreciated that Gevirtz is “pursuing a personal project and dealing with heavy themes” and using “minimal equipment.”

• Videographer Antoine Edmonson, who followed the BTS footage on Gevirtz’s channel, was looking for documentary storytelling inspiration for his commercial video work.

Looking ahead: Gevirtz and his team are self-distributing the movie through their website starting Friday—in a bid to avoid unfavorable streamer deals that could take up to 50% of revenue.

“I wanted to prove that you don’t need a studio, you can just make something. Whether or not Netflix wants to buy it, we made a movie,” Gevirtz said at the screening. “We got a group of people together, went out, and made something we’re proud of.”

Creators Ask: Has Instagram Gone Too Far?

Veteran creator and photographer Peter McKinnon called out Instagram’s new “Made with AI” tag last week, highlighting how images that are even slightly modified with an AI tool (such as Adobe Photoshop’s “Generative Fill”) now share the same label as 100% AI-generated content.

“[If] AI was used within the process of the picture being created that you’re seeing right now…but you don’t know where, that’s where I think it gets kind of sticky,” McKinnon said.

Catch up quick: Back in February, Meta announced a new AI image detection feature rolling out across Instagram, Facebook, and Threads. “Users have told us they appreciate transparency around this new technology,” Meta said.

While creators can now choose to label content as AI-generated themselves when they post to Instagram, the platform’s automatic detection tool has been hit-or-miss.

“It's quite discouraging to see this flag in a piece I poured so much time into, only for people to overlook it just because Meta decided it looks like AI,” one product designer (who uses Instagram for their business) wrote on Reddit.

Zoom out: This isn’t the only AI controversy Meta is facing right now. Last month, the company confirmed it’s using Instagram and Facebook users’ public photos to train its AI models.

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Beta Squad and AMP Host Charity Soccer Match

Creator groups Beta Squad and AMP hosted a charity soccer match yesterday in front of 25,000 fans at London’s Selhurst Stadium, with proceeds benefiting The Water Project.

Why it matters: Inspired by events such as the Sidemen Charity Match, creators are continuing to prove they can draw strong crowds to live sports.

• Tickets for the Beta Squad-AMP match sold out within minutes in early May, with over 65,000 people waiting in the purchase queue online, according to Verge Magazine.

• Beta Squad livestreamed the match on its YouTube channel—over 600,000 viewers tuned in live, and it’s currently sitting at No. 1 on YouTube’s Trending charts.

FYI: The game ended early after hundreds of fans stormed the pitch.

👀 Creator Moves

• Chef Nick DiGiovanni is hiring a lead videographer with a strong understanding of film production.

• Unwell is hiring a podcast editor to help film and edit its shows (such as Call Her Daddy).

• Hopescope is hiring a YouTube video editor proficient in Premiere Pro. Must be willing to relocate to Utah.

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🔥 Press Worthy

• Fitness creator Nick Symmonds is now on Roku.

• MrBeast surpasses T-Series as the most-subscribed-to YouTube channel.

• Instagram adds an “Inspiration” tab that shares trending songs and audio. 

• Ryan Trahan releases his popular “Penny Series” as a nearly five-hour movie.

• Channel 5 releases a documentary on “locked in” creator Davis Clarke.

• Former President Donald Trump joins TikTok.

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